Marketing and Advertising (1880s-1920s)

            The topic I focused on was marketing and advertising in the late 19^th to the early 20^th century. Marketing and advertising was connected to industrialization because of the rise of the mass production of goods. Since so many goods were in demand companies needed to show why their goods were better than another company’s goods. During this time period, advertisements went from being on handbills to being in newspapers and magazines.

This is a black and white Baking 
Powder ad from the 1880s.

            In the 1880s, advertising was just starting to develop. People were interested in how to market to specific groups of people and how to do their advertisements. Should they use business cards, handbills, or posters? In an article on the Harvard Business School website, a man named Nathaniel C. Fowler said, “advertising is a distinct art, as much so as the art of coal mining or of engine building.” In other words, he is arguing that advertising is just as important as any other job. The main point of advertising is to persuade people to buy a product they don’t need. In this article, another man states, “Within this emerging national market, it fell to the advertiser to encourage consumers to buy goods not necessarily produced locally and to convince them of the superiority of one product over another.” This statement means that another goal of advertisements in this time period was to show how one brand is better than another even though it is the same product. Once people started to figure out what marketing really was, they could develop advertisements based on what they thought would sell more of their product.

            With the rise of the industry of marketing there came many jobs to go along with it. In the late 19^th century advertising became a true profession. Volney B. Palmer was one of the earliest advertising agent. He set up a shop in Philadelphia for salesman to come to. He would do everything to market a product from a-z. He would find the “crowd” that the product was advertised to, he would find the best medium for the product, and then he would come up with a creative design/slogan for the product. This helped businesses become slightly less stressed because they did not have to worry about advertising and selling the product. They placed that responsibility in the agents hands.

This is a Gold Medal Flour Advertisement with 
some color on it from the 1900s.

            The “modern ad industry” started in the early 20^th century. Businesses were starting to advertise cars, cigarettes, and other products directed to “homemakers.” These businesses published their ads in sections of the local newspapers, on flyers, and in various local magazines. Paul Nathan in 1900 wrote a book called “How to Make Money in the Printing Business.” In this book he said, “the intelligent job printer will never permit himself to forget that printing is allied to advertising, and that almost all of the printing he does depends in some way upon its success as an advertisement or as an advertising medium.” In other words, Paul is saying that in this time period whatever a printer was printing was for advertisement purposes. Advertising promoted the production of mass-produced goods and the only way to advertise was through the printer.

            Towards the end of the early 20^th century, radio and television ads became more popular. All the other “printed” ads had less words and more pictures to appeal to a larger group of people. Advertisements also used more color and less black and white. Food advertisements especially used color as the main focus of an ad. For example, a company out of California that sold oranges used a hand tinted orange to persuade people about how juicy and ripe the fruit looked. This specific ad was published in 1908 as a section in a newspaper.

            Many ads during the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century have made history. A Rolls-Royce ad said “To a man who is afraid to let his dream come true.” This specific advertisement had many paragraphs describing the car and all of its features. Whereas, in 1910 an ad for the new Cadillac came out with the slogan, “A car literally without competition.” This ad had one picture and this slogan across the top of it. Listerine came out with a spectacular ad in 1913. Their catch phrase was, “Often a Bridesmaid, but never a Bride.” In 1915, Tiffany finally put their name on their building. For the longest time, they had gone without the name on their building. They were relying on the local customers for all of their revenue. Now, people who hear the name will want to go to the store and see what they have. Therefore, their company’s profit raises. (other various ads that were considered "the best" of this time period are pictured at the end)

             In conclusion, if the world in the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century was not mass producing goods, there would not have been a need for marketing and advertising. 

This is a food chopper ad from the 1890s.

This is a Cream O' Wheat ad from the 1910s.

This is a Campbell's Soup ad from the 1920s.

This is a Whitman's Chocolate Sampler ad from the 1930s.

Hyperlinked Sources:

Britannica High School
I used this source to find out general information about the advertisements during this time period.

Ad Age
I used this source to find out that advertising was considered a profession. 

Gale Power Search
I used this source to find out the biggest car ad in the 1900s which was a Cadillac advertisement.

Calisphere (University of California)
I used this source to find out that color was important in early 20th century advertisements.

Duke University Libraries
I used this source to find out that people wrote books about the various techniques of marketing and how to advertise effectively.

Boundless
I used this source to find out that people "rented" spaces in newspapers. 

Vintage Ad Browser
I used this source to find all of my pictures. All of the picture I used were primary sources from this website. 

Business Insider
I used this source to find out information about advertising in the late 20th century, just to see how it changed.

Harvard Business School
I used this source to find quotes from books that people wrote in this time period to use as primary sources. 

The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958
I used this book to find lots of advertisements during this time period that I used as primary sources. I found ads from Coca-Cola, Tiffany, Pillsbury, etc.